By Jennifer McGraw, Sports Talk Philly Contributor 
After a 14-month hiatus, Philadelphia Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, spoke with the media on Tuesday to discuss important updates about the draft, Jalen Hurts and the long-awaited (sort of) return of the classic Kelly green uniforms. Lurie spoke during the NFL owners meeting in Palm Beach, Fl.
Eagles fans shared excitement for both the present and future. The team, coming off of a 9-8 season spilling into a Wild Card game, is transitioning out of its "rebuild" year and heading towards a hopeful success in the future.
The future begins with the NFL Draft. The Eagles have three first-round picks which will aid in their rebuild. Fans and media alike had countless discussions about what the Eagles' front office will do with their picks, whether it be another quarterback or to build on the defense that struggled this past season. Lurie mentioned that he has become "less involved" in the draft.
"I really believe in who we have in the building and I’m very trusting of different departments that we have," Lurie said. "I would say if anything the last few years I’ve taken a little more of a backseat."
In terms of Lurie's trust in the front office, he addressed whether the picks in the drafts in recent years have been "hits" or "misses." He backed the contract extension of Eagles general manager, Howie Roseman. The deal runs through 2025.
"Obviously, over the last five years, we’ve been in the playoffs four of the past five years, we won a Super Bowl. He’s really good at building a roster, and re-building a roster, and he’s very, very well-regarded in the league.” Lurie said on supporting Howie Roseman.
Though Lurie took a backseat in the draft in recent years, he did talk about drafting J.J. Arcega-Whiteside.
"I know some of you thought I was trying to pick J.J. or whatever, no, that was not the case," Lurie said. "There was a tie between J.J. and Parris [Campbell] in that room and they said to me flippantly, who do you want? And I said hey, these are both red star players, that means A-plus character, you’ve got my blessing whatever way you want to go, and I think they went probably based on injury risk, Parris had some soft-tissue injury risk."
Lurie also discussed that the draft process is incredibly intense. Each draft prospect is analyzed from every angle possible, and while being timed on making a decision, the draft can be a stressful process.
In recent months, the Eagles have been closely watched to see if the team would dive into further talks of trading for a veteran quarterback, such as Deshaun Watson. He talked about how he downplayed his role in giving the "green light" on players but did not comment on Watson when asked.
"We have a policy that we will do our due diligence on every player," Lurie said. "You've got to do your due diligence. There's so much information about every player."
Lurie also talked about the return of the Kelly green uniforms, which will be the team's alternatives starting in 2023. During the 2022 season, the team will also have black helmets to complement their black-on-black uniforms.
Though the Eagles have a lot of work to do this offseason, it seems pretty certain that the front office is all in on doing what they can to get the Birds back to another Super Bowl.
